So much is moving so rapidly that any comment risks not only being out of date by the time the paper is published but seriously out of date! I’m writing this on March 25 and there is one thing I can be sure of today – it’s nine months to Christmas Day.

In the church’s calendar this is the Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord. It is the day that the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to a young woman called Mary (Luke 1: 26-38). Gabriel told Mary she had been chosen by God to be the Mother of God. And so it was that, through the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was conceived in her womb nine months before he was born on what we know as Christmas Day.

I’ve been to Nazareth, to what remains of the house where Mary lived. It is very moving to realise that it was in that very spot that God became flesh. From the very moment of conception, God was as vulnerable to all the perils of being human as we are. He faced all the same risks in the womb and at birth and in childhood and growing up as we do. He shared alongside the people of his community in Nazareth all the challenges they faced, including famine and disease and hardship.

God knows what it is to be human. God understands how we feel. God shares our pain, anguish and suffering. So, in the midst of this pandemic remember that God is with you.

REV TIM TREANOR

St John’s Church, Wellington